Time to Finish It Up!

The Morgans and Their Animals Above

Here it is, kidz, the last post!

Things kind of lost coherence once I got to Olympia and felt like home. It's not accidental that these two things, home and non-coherence, go together.

I drove up from Salem and upon encountering traffic in Portland had to use my silk mask all the way through on 205. Recent studies note the problems women are having with particle pollution, and this woman seriously reacts still (unfortunately) to exhaust fumes when they get to a certain intensity. However, the mask worked and kept me breathing, which is cool. And the minute I got past Vancouver, things mellowed out.

Of course, it also started seriously raining, the first rain on the whole trip. By the time I got to Olympia, it was at a steady drip, and I loved seeing people dressed like me slouching around in the grey. Since it was Tuesday and a work day, I ran into Caffe Vita (http://www.caffevita.com/) and had an intense afternoon catching up with myth, along with a bunch of student types all hanging out and slogging through their work. At least I get paid for mine, low salary though it is!

I did manage to trip off a landing I didn't see and sprawl on the floor for a minute to my acute embarrassment. I'd attribute this to age and fatness except that I have been doing this about all my life and just never seem to get hurt. That will surely change, but meanwhile, it's been handy. If you're gonna be a klutz, at least be a bouncy one. (Really helped when I skied a lot--never broke anything.)

John Flory
The wonderful John Flory, so I learned from email, had a close brush with death from a nasty old rat he was handling in his position as veterinarian. His wonderful daughter Adi kept us all posted, and he has now pulled out of this awful disease that starts with "L." I had wanted to do some banjo talking with him since he is a master player and repairer and maker of same, but that will come later.

Hangin' with the Animal Kingdom
My buddies Jim and Laurie Morgan came to meet me for dinner at the new Spar. McMenamin's has taken it over. It was pretty great and does have wifi, but don't order a side of tater tots unless you're ready for some serious food that sits around in your stomach for as long as the decay rate of most plastics. But yeah, it's good. (http://academic.evergreen.edu/b/basdar24/SparStory.html)

After supper, we went back to my camping spot for the week. Jim and Laurie are old friends from our Holy Trinity Orthodox days, where we all sang in the choir together. They have two dogs (Bobbie and Buster the Wonder Dog), a llama (Nutter) with other llama sadly having just passed, and two huge donkeys (Trotter and Abe) that they ride and take to various arcane donkey events. Buster was the newest addition, so I had to get to know him--a sweet but huge dog, and you never want to let him out. That dog can run, as I found out to my grief! Luckily, he soon returned home, but I made sure to shut the front door firmly after that!

I spent Wednesday catching up with laundry, school, etc.


Vicki
I finally got time to hang with one of my best friends, Vicki Scannell, from Pierce College. Once she was done with school and I was done with grading at Cafe Vita, we went for a great long walk around the bay as we almost always do when I'm down there. Vicki is a great writer and walker and a real source of inspiration to me. We went out to Ramblin' Jack's (one of my fave Oly restaurants--they have EVERYTHING!) and then sat around in the living room too stuffed to move, talk, or think. It was great!

Before we totally checked out, we each gave each other a revelation about how to use our online platform for school. That's another reason I love time with Vicki!

Scott Gets Restless
By now, Scott was getting pretty determined to come down, so he did on Thursday night after playing tunes with our buds Becky and Michael and Karen. (He even made them chicken soup and dinner! I should leave more often!)

It was a bit after midnight that I woke up from a cozy sleep in the van to the sound of our camper revving up the driveway. Our camper is a tiny Toyota truck with what used to seem like a small camper on the back, but it seemed like a palace now though, oddly, not as comfy as my cot in the van! Go figure. Still, we re-routed the heater, set up beds, embraced, etc. T-Lou was there, too! So it was all wonderful.

The next day, we actually went and got some foam for the van that really fits the cot, so no more overhang! And we schlepped around and did various stuff.


Fine Times at Our House
We couldn't wait on Friday to see Joe and Paula McHugh, along with my main Coattail Rider man, Forrest Newton, perform at Evergreen. After a challenge finding the place, we made it in just in time to see lots of friends in the audience. Joe has just written a novel, Kilowatt, which Yours Truly is going to copy edit. Joe is a fabulous storyteller and fiddler of the West Virginia persuasion (a definite fave for us thanks to Jim Ketterman)! His wife, Paula, is a great banjo player and artist, and her art was featured--pictures of fiddle tunes. We bought one that looked like a picture of T-Lou. For more, do see http://www.americanfamilystories.org/home.html to listen to some great stories!

And yeah, I'm the one that yelled when Joe scared us!

Heading Home
I decided to go home with Scott on Saturday since I was becoming discombobulated, and with him there, it just seemed like I already was home. So you other Olympians, I'm just gonna have to come down there again so that we can hang. Or you all will have to come up to Port Townsend!

We had a glorious breakfast with Jim and Scott doing all the work. (Yeah!) The Orthodox were about to go off meat for Lent, so we had bacon, of course! And eggs, and potatoes. Well, you get the idea. We packed up and said farewell to our friends and headed over to Joe and Paula's to get in a few tunes before getting on the road. It was another fine time at their house by Boston Harbor (name cracks me up), and we found out we'll be seing them in about a week since they have a gig up here! They're staying with us! Yes!!!

I finally cut out at 3 p.m. because I didn't want to drive home in the dark, and it was great to go up the back way along the Sound, past all the familiar places and trails I want to get in and hike some more. Finally, I was pulling into our driveway! The place looked great except for the coffee table being covered with boat plans.

From there on it was a flurry of cleaning out the van (much faster than packing, though!) and laundry and dinner and then, finally sleep! I MADE IT!!!

Future Plans
Rather than feeling sated, I am already scheming some new plans. I don't want to hang in cities, and Joshua Tree would involve driving through some pretty bad air around Bakersfield, so I am plotting a month down at a beach north of Santa Barbara. I really did fall in love with US 1 in CA, so I want more of it, but I want some warmth, too!

Adieu and farewell for now!